The hugs and smiles were flying and that’s how you do Senior Day. Hoke’s got the hug thing down pat, and it’s tough to beat this for smiles:

Misc from Saturday:

* Squibs. Only use a squib kick if it’s the last play of the half or game, or in other words, if there are around four or fewer ticks left on the clock. Or anytime Rocket Ismail is on the field. No exceptions.

* Student No-Shows. OK, beside Fitz’s brutal injury there was one downer. And now I’m pissed. It’s one thing to show up late (and the ESPN opening shot from the south end zone just before kickoff was damn embarrassing) but to not show up at all? I don’t get it. Sorry youngsters, but #1000SSS should remove a section or two of student tickets and sell them to folks who are waiting for season ducats. And by the way, for what it’s worth it looks even worse from the sideline due to the slope of the stadium—it appears as though half of the students didn’t show. I can’t help but wonder how many players were shaking their winged noggins. When PA announcer Carl Grapentine executed what I think is an awesome U-M tradition—calling out for each U-M class, freshman through seniors, to sound off—it was a complete mess:

* Strength of Schedule. So if you put aside the Ohio State situation, by most measures heading into the last week of the regular season Michigan in 2012 will have faced the top few, maybe top 3, teams in the country in Notre Dame, Alabama and the Bucks. That used to count for something. Take 1945, the year featured on Saturday’s ‘This Week in Michigan Football’ segment. Michigan dropped games at Yankee Stadium vs. Army, at Baltimore Stadium vs. Navy, and in Ann Arbor against Indiana. Those teams finished #1, #2, and #4 respectively. So where did The Fritzmen end up? Number 6.

* Last time. So this is the final time we’ll see Denard not lace up of these beauties in Michigan Stadium:

* But I don’t Hate you, man. I ran into a few very friendly Iowa fans downtown after the premiere of the Billy Taylor movie Friday night. I gave them my typical “good luck” and chatted for a little bit. It got me to thinking about where, today, we view Iowa as a rival and vice versa. Then I thought about everyone else. Then I made a chart. Then I posted it here: [Ed. Then I updated it with Rutgers and Maryland and reposted it]:

-Northwestern more or less respects us (whereas they seem to hold OSU in contempt) but Michigan is definitely a big game for them – they regard us as a key measuring stick and are excited to play us, even if they tolerate us more than most other fanbases. I’d say it’s yellow or orange on their end.

-PSU is orange on their end. It really stuck in their craw that we beat them nine times in a row. A surprisingly large number of them believe in conspiracy theories that officiating favors us over them. They would love to play us every year.

-ND-UM should be orange on their end and red on ours. They don’t like us. They blame us for keeping them out of the Big Ten a century (and, in return, vow now to never join) and think that we’ve held an anti-Catholic bias over the years. ND fans regularly say things like “USC is our rival, Navy is our friend and Michigan is our enemy.” As for us, lots of Michigan fans love to see ND lose whenever possible.

Regarding Notre Dame, I agree with Greg to some extent, and with Mustelid to some extent. The funny thing is that when you look at ND, Knute Rockne and Ara Parseghian were protestant (more to the point, not Catholic), while numerous UM coaches and players have been Catholic. I think the anti-Catholic thing may be part of their perception, but it’s not reality. Another point of note is that Frank “Shorty” Longman had ties to both schools, making things even more interesting.

And yes, I think that particular members of the student body deserve to be taken to task for not showing up. Like the videos indicate, “This is Michigan.” Avoid attending these games, and you’ll end up regretting it for the rest of your life. Maybe not on Saturday, but someday your kids will ask you about the atmosphere at The Big House, and you’ll have to come up with something to tell them. Think of all the countless people who would like to see a game at Michigan Stadium, and never get the chance. Make sure you use those tickets, or that someone uses them. It’s a shame that they go to waste, and it’s appalling that these seniors had to go out without the proper salute from their peers.

The “students push down to the lower rows” excuse was blown up this week when #1000SSS released the staggering no show student tickets figures. It’s a complete disgrace and the students better start some soul searching about this or the days of open access for all will surely come to an end.

So with regard to Big Ten opponents, UM’s view is always more favorable toward the opposing team than the opposing team views UM. Hmmm, a tad bit of dismissiveness and arrogance in this appraisal. If UM only dislike OSU and MSU more it might have a better records against them over the past decade. Would you rather feel superior and smug or go to BCS games? I bet you’d choose the former over the latter, wouldn’t you? Just keep telling yourself that the UM program is the leader and the best to help you overcome the knowledge that it’s really a regional program unable to consistently compete with the elite of college football since the ’70s.

@Bill Shatner
“Hmmm, a tad bit of dismissiveness and arrogance in this appraisal.” Are you saying it’s inaccurate? Where? If anything the differences are generous, especially Iowa and Illinois. If anything, if the goal here is to criticize the Michigan fan base, I would have went for the lack of passion argument. If you are saying Michigan hates MSU more than the folks in EL or Ohio, it’s not really even close.

“If UM only dislike OSU and MSU more it might have a better records against them over the past decade.” I’m not sure what the passion of the fans have to do with that, but I’m willing to try.

“Would you rather feel superior and smug or go to BCS games?” Huh? Go to BCS games. I went earlier this year and had a ball.

“Just keep telling yourself that the UM program is the leader and the best to help you overcome the knowledge that it’s really a regional program” What does that have to do with this chart? This is a chart comparing our regional foes.